Kerry says he called Egypt FM over journalists' 'chilling' sentence

BAGHDAD - US Secretary of State John Kerry said that he had phoned Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri on Monday to register Washington's "serious displeasure" with the sentencing of three Al Jazeera journalists to seven years in jail.

"Today's conviction is obviously a chilling and draconian sentence," he told reporters in Baghdad.

"When I heard the verdict today I was so concerned about it, frankly, disappointed in it, that I immediately picked up the telephone and talked to the foreign minister of Egypt and registered our serious displeasure at this kind of verdict," he said.